Every tribe and tongue, every creature, all of heaven and earth are called to worship the one true God.

A worship service? We can schedule these as often as we like yet worship is the space of our lives. We have been given the capacity to receive God for who He is and by Him we have the ability to respond, reflecting His very image back to Him in worship. Sing. Dance. Celebrate. Clap hands. Lift up our eyes to the King of Glory. Worship is a fitting response because He deserves praise, honor, and glory for what He has done.

The first song recorded in Revelation 5 tells us what Jesus the Lamb of God has done for us as the voices in heaven sing out, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God saints from every tribe and language and people and nation; You have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign on earth.” (Rev. 5:9-10)

By the actions of Jesus Christ, we have been freed from bondage. Through his blood we have been given authority to stop being spectators and start being actors. Our physical life at work is our spiritual act of worship. Paul says in Romans 12:1, “. . . offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is your true and proper worship.”

The shift from being spectators to actors is about taking up our God-given vocation, truly being God’s kingdom and royal priesthood in the earth. While the Old Covenant priesthood was for mediating God’s presence to His people. Now, in the New Covenant, this royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9) involves all believers representing God to all creation.

What does a life of worship look like? It means life without compartments, everything for the glory of the Lord. That means everything we do. File under worship all your choices, decisions, habits and priorities. What we worship is revealed in what we do.

What we worship is revealed in...

...our presentation of ourselves and our local church

...the things we say in casual conversation

...our parenting

...our leisure

...the way we eat

...the way we rest our bodies in sleep

...our being at work and how we do our jobs

...the way we celebrate our calendar year

...our obedience to His commandments

...our writing

...our online history

...our Netflix queue

...how we entertain ourselves

...our response to the poor

...how and what we wear

...our bank statements

...what we laugh at

...the way we mourn

...our attitudes when we drive

...our response to media

...our Facebook wall

...our dependence on ______.

Often we categorize worship as ...our singing ...our celebrations ...the arts ...and while these are ways of expressing worship to the Lord, worship is attached to all of our activity. The allegiance of our heart, mind, and strength is made visible not just during adoration times, but in our bored times. Worship is what we lean into in the low times as well as the times when we feel devout.

This gets personal and why wouldn’t it? Either life is in Christ or we have available another power source worthy of our attention, our energy, our love, our money, our time, etc. The lie swallowed by Adam and Eve was that they thought life was just as much in the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil as it was in the Tree of Life (actually they banked on more life being in the choice of forbidden fruit than in the wholesome kind that was recommended by God). In their case, they made idols out of their choices by serving something less than their Creator. Their sin problem was an idolatry problem which was a worship problem. All of life is worship.

Life without compartments means we acknowledge that all choices bear fruit. What kind of fruit do you want? Because of Jesus breaking the power of sin, we get to choose life in every scenario. By his blood, we are free to choose to do the right thing, to have our footsteps directed by the Lord. This is the reality Paul speaks of in Romans 8 when he declares that “neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

A life of worship is total surrender. For the believer, this means that our whole lives are ordered under the authority and reign of Jesus the King. Being me means being as Jesus is in the world. That’s the reality of expressing we are in Christ, living under the rule of the King. Nothing less than being found entirely in Him is our authentic expression of who we are.

1 John 1:6-9 there is a series of statements that define the authentic worshiper as:

1:6 // One who does not walk in darkness but in the light

1:6 // Who lives in the truth

1:7 // Who has fellowship with the community

1:8 // Who does not lie but recognizes sin

1:9 // Who confesses it and is cleansed from sin by the blood of Jesus, and is forgiven

Another way of understanding life this way is holiness. To be holy is to be a pleasing fragrance to God (see 2 Corinthians 2:15). John tells us in the passage above that because of Jesus we share his intimacy, his close relationship, with Father God. He’s made us holy by his own blood. He’s brought all of our lives into his light revealing the truth that all of life was intended for communion (community-union). Because of Jesus we can face our past. By his blood we have a clear conscience. By his blood there is no condemnation for any intentional or unintentional misfires where we fell short of receiving all of his love. By his blood we press forward as holy people walking with God in every area of life.

“All the world’s a stage, ” wrote Shakespeare. In Genesis 1-2 we see God set the stage when He blessed everything that He created. This meant that He made all creation the sign and the means of His presence, and wisdom, love, and revelation. What was lost in the Fall was redeemed in Christ. Ephesians 1:22 says, “God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”

It’s time to worship. The location is wherever we go. We not only remember what he has done but when we lift our eyes to worship him in the space of our lives we see him holding all things together, reconciling all things to himself, “whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:20).